I always wonder....?

Sitting in a hotel, watching the action at the bar, I always wonder who is going to get lucky and who isn't.  It's dead simple to figure out.  Just watch body language and you've got it figured. 

That's what I was doing last Thursday night in our hotel in Vancouver, where we had ventured for a long-weekend vacation.  While there, we dodged The Big One, which is slated to hit anytime between now and two hundred years out (that's about as accurate as these predictions can be).  When it comes, this one will be devastating, believe me.  One interesting side note, on the flight there, WestJet's vp of finance, who happened to be on board, stepped up to the mike and charmingly introduced himself.  Next thing I knew, he was working a cart with the flight attendant!  Pretty impressive.   

Along with the dashing Errol Flynn who drank there in his time, we stayed at The Sylvia Hotel on English Bay.  What a place!  Built in 1912, it has been designated a heritage site -- a blessing because it is surrounded by luxury condos and restaurants which would otherwise expand, bleed into and destroy all its prime territory.  The really weird thing about The Sylvia is that it is pretty much exclusively Caucasian.  I kid you not!  In a city that is about half Asian and Indo, all I saw in The Sylvia were white people.  That and many lesbian and gay couples.  In fact, I don't think I saw "your average couple" the whole time we were there?!

The Sylvia opened the first cocktail bar in Vancouver in 1959.  It was called "The Tilting Bar", for some reason?  While there, old ladies actually came in with pillows and neck rests to have a cocktail!  The whole place has an "English pub" atmosphere without an overhead sports TV to be seen -- thank G-d!  I loved looking out over the bay to see the many huge freighters waiting to be towed to the harbour to unload.  Their gorgeous lights at night were dazzling. 

One evening when B turned in early, an old guy actually tried to pick me up at the bar!  Brought back many memories of my years of business travel, when I sat at the bar so I could tell the bartender I didn't want to be bothered.  The bar is actually a pretty safe place, but then again so is The Sylvia itself. 

"I think I'll get out of these wet clothes and into a dry martini," was the quote over a seafood restaurant we went to.  Attributed to Alexander Woollcott, they had actually spelt his name incorrectly over the bar.  How could one get that wrong?  The waitress told me no one had ever mentioned it before.  Trust me to point it out. 

The flight home was one of the bumpiest I had ever encountered.  But a gorgeous first officer landed us perfectly back home in Calgary.  "Heather touched down like a feather," I said to the steward.  She emerged from the cockpit and he told her what I had said.  I think she actually blushed.

The famous Sylvia Hotel in Vancouver's English Bay.  The ivy is famous.